Love Me | Series Book #1

EIGHTEEN

Every time I start to believe that paper books are going out of style, my job never fails to correct me. The line at the register was outrageously long today. It's not so difficult to understand since Christmas Eve's tomorrow, but it was like working on an assembly line trying to get through everyone. Not to mention the constant requests for gift boxes to which I had to explain that we only carry bags. It made me want to apologize to every holiday worker at toy stores when I was a kid. If merely selling books was my giving me this trouble, I could only imagine what nightmare Toys R Us might be.

After what seemed like an entire days work, I finally caught a break during lunch hour. I was heading to the food court in the mall when I caught sight of Rachel and her family across the way. She was obvious at first glance, surrounded by all four of her brothers. It wasn't long before she saw me either. At first she didn't know how to respond. It looked like she was about to smile until she remembered she's supposed to be pissed at me. So, instead she tried to look away.

Uh uh. She wasn't getting off that easily.

"Rachel!" I called, crossing through the food court to approach her. She along with her brothers, turned at the sound of my voice. The tallest one, either David or Nathaniel, shot me a smile, looking down at me.

"Kaya, Fischer!" he exclaimed. Definitely Nathaniel. David was always the more reserved of the two. "Look at you. You may look grown up, but don't think I forgot that prank you guys tried to pull at Rachel's sleepover."

"Yep, that was me." I wasn't going to deny it. But, I was tempted to call him out for the unnecessary comment. He tries to act like he's an old man when in reality he's just three years older than us. Next was David, preceding by a year, then Rachel and lastly, Jacob and Jesse.

"What do you mean tried?" Rachel corrected him. "Last time I checked, it was a success. It's your own fault you couldn't tell the difference between plastic and the actual toilet seat."

"Well I apologize for my lack of eyesight at three a.m. in the morning. Who does shit like that?"

"You really wanna bring shit into this conversation?" she replied with a smirk.

"Got em," said Jacob.

"You know what, it's time to go. All of you get to the car," Nathaniel started swatting them. Rachel chuckled and began to go, but I caught hold of her arm.

"Can we talk for a second?" I asked, although it was going to happen whether she agreed or not. She sighed and called back to her brothers,

"I'm coming. Just go on without me," turning back to me she said, "What?"

"Look, I'm sorry about yesterday. I didn't mean to come off like that on the phone, I just figured since you're not the hugest fan of Leah, you'd wanna skip out."

She uncrossed her arms, and stood up straighter. "I know what you mean, but that's not what bothered me. It was the stuff about Chase. I know he likes her. It just sounded like pity over the phone. Almost like you were telling me not to come because it would their love-fest or something. But, I'm not mad at you. I guess I'm just mad at the situation. Sorry for bitching out on you about it."

"It's cool. I know I'm not the most easygoing all the time either. So, what are you guys doing here anyway? I thought you were leaving for Houston soon."

"Oh you know how my family is. Just picking up my grandma's last minute Christmas present," she said with a roll of eyes. "What about you?"

"I'm working my lovely job today. This is the only break I get till seven."

"Ouch."

"I know. I'm guessing you don't have time to grab a bite with me?"

She checked her phone for the time. "Well, I don't have any messages from Mom yet, so I guess I can grab a latte or something," she smirked. Perfect. I didn't know how I was gonna make it through the next few days without spending some time with one of my besties.